Research Groups and Opportunities

Research faculty have vibrant groups that include undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Participating in undergraduate research is an ideal way to gain professional development and learn cutting edge techniques.

Faculty with active research groups recruit undergraduates and graduate students to their group on an on-going basis and are always interesting in talking to interested students.

Research & Grants

Current Grants

Hai Lin and Emilie Guidez

NSF/CMTC: PI, Hai Lin; co-PI, Emilie Guidez; 2022-2025)- Adaptive multi-layer simulations of NarK transport protein, Grant No. CHE-2153441

John (Nick) Fisk

NSF/MCB: PI - "M13 Phage: A Model System for Complex Control of Multicomponent Processes in Biology"

Emilie Guidez 

ACS-PRF: PI - "Computational Investigation of Thiolate-Protected Gold Nanoclusters for Syngas Production"

Jeff Knight

NIH/NIGMS: PI - "Ca2+-independent and Ca2+-inhibited membrane binding by synaptotagmin-like proteins."

Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award - "Chemistry of interfacial protein-membrane interactions central to insulin secretion."

Jung-Jae Lee

Wings of Hope for Pancreatic Research: PI - "Targeted Luminescent Nanoprobes for In Vivo Optical Imaging of Pancreatic Cancer"

NIH-R01: co-PI - "Retinal ganglion cell axon regeneration using an engineered nanoparticles system for co-delivery of mobile zinc chelator and neurotrophic factors"

Woonghee Lee

NSF/DBI: PI - "CIBR: Integrative Computational Platform for Biomolecular Solid-State NMR"

Hai Lin

National Institute of Health (PI, 2021-2024) "Operation Mechanism of CLCF Fluoride/Proton Antiporter,Grant No. 1R15GM141728-01

Xiaojun Ren

NIH-R01: PI- Title: Spatial Organization of Epigenetic Complexes and Chromatin

Marino Resendiz

NIH /NIGMS: PI - 8-Oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosine in aptamer development and its impact on RNA structure.

Organic Syntheses Research Grant for Faculty at Principally Undergraduate Institutions:PI- 
Diastereoselective formation of mono-, di-, tri-, and tetra-substituted cyclobutyl rings via photochemical approaches in the solid-state and in solution.

Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, PI – “Structure-Function Relationships of Chemically Modified RNA: The Quest to Retain Students in Chemistry”

Scott Reed

NIH, R25: PI (Co-PI: Doris)- Rocky Mountain Summer Research Education Experience NIH, R15:  PI – “Identifying Genetic Contributions to Adverse Drug Reactions”

Haobin Wang

NSF/CMTC: PI- “Developing the multilayer multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree theory”

Liliya Vugmeyster

NIH, R15: PI – “Variant-specific dynamics of amyloid-b fibrils”

Past Grants

Hai Lin: PI

Research Corporation for Science Advancement (PI, 2018-2020)-  "Combining Artificial Neural Networks and Quantum Chemistry for Simulations of Proton Transfer through Channels and Transporters," Grant No. 25793

National Science Foundation (PI, 2016-2019)-  "Adaptive QM/MM Methods for Proton Transfer in Complex Environments," Grant No. CHE-1564349

Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation (PI, 2014-2019)-  "Open-Boundary QM/MM Methods for Multiscale Modeling and Simulations of Chemical Reactions in Complex Environments," Grant No. TH-14-028

Scott Reed: PI (co-PI Liliya)

NSF-MRI: Acquisition of High-Sensitivity, Solids Capable 400 MHz NMR for Research and Undergraduate Training at the University of Colorado at Denver

Marino Resendiz

NIH /NIGMS: PI - Design of apatmers of RNA containing 8-oxo-7, 8-dihydroguanosine: Function and selection of aptamers with novel properties.